Page 161 - LA ENSEÑANZA APRENDIZAJE DE LENGUAS

Sección III
TEMAS ACTUALES DE ENSEÑANZA
DE LENGUAS Y LA FORMACIÓN DOCENTE 161

Here the PST envisions his role as helping to improve educational perspectives for his learners.
Otto, who was also placed in the foster home, felt overwhelmed by the students' acade-

mic and socio-emotional needs. Originally believing that all learners were the same he became

aware of the differences between students who had a strong support system and more vulne-

rable students who lack a family.

I know now that there are other types of students like them, who have no parents, family

or resources to succeed in life, but I was able to see that they are really interested in doing

something for themselves on their own.

This demonstrates how Otto has undergone a change in the way he understands his

students’ situation and has shifted his understanding and repositioning of ‘self’ in his emerging
identity. Coping strategies were developed as is illustrated below:

My practicum was a challenge because they were children, students between twelve, four-

teen and even sixteen. I would think how grown they were to be in elementary school, but...

they had suffered a lot growing up without a father, or mother, so they are very difficult to

control, they need a lot of discipline. At first, I had trouble because I am too kind so they took

advantage of that. It was terrible for me when I had to be strict but they began to improve.

I [had] to be proactive. In the sense that you have to see the problems that some may have

and resolve them before they happen because there were a lot of problems where I was. If

I did any activity that could cause any trouble I preferred not to do it, and so on. So, I would

have to decide which activities to do and where they could get along for them to be able to

learn something.

Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas